One in five women is sexually assaulted while in college. Most often, it happens her freshman or sophomore year. In the great majority of cases, it’s by someone she knows – and also most often, she does not report what happened. And though fewer, men, too, are victimized. The Administration is committed to putting an end to this violence. That’s why the President established the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault on January 22, 2014, with a mandate to strengthen federal enforcement efforts and provide schools with additional tools to combat sexual assault on their campuses.

"To anyone out there who has ever been assaulted: You are not alone. We have your back." —President Obama: NotAlone.gov#1is2Many

Today, the Task Force is announcing a series of actions to: (1) identify the scope of the problem on college campuses, (2) help prevent campus sexual assault, (3) help schools respond effectively when a student is assaulted, and (4) improve, and make more transparent, the federal government’s enforcement efforts. We will continue to pursue additional executive or legislative actions in the future. These steps build on the Administration’s previous work to combat sexual assault. The Task Force formulated its recommendations after a 90-day review period during which it heard from thousands of people from across the country — via 27 online and in-person listening sessions and written comments from a wide variety of stakeholders.

On Tuesday, we are launching a dedicated website –www.NotAlone.gov – to make enforcement data public and to make other resources accessible to students and schools. On the website, students can learn about their rights, search enforcement data, and read about how to file a complaint. The website will also help schools and advocates: it will make available federal guidance on legal obligations, best available evidence and research, and relevant legislation. Finally, the website will have trustworthy resources from outside the federal government, such as hotline numbers and mental health services locatable by simply typing in a zip code.

Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the release of the First Report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington.

Vice President Biden said on Tuesday that the USA’s colleges and universities have a moral responsibility to “step up” efforts to prevent sexual assault on campuses. Biden’s remarks follow the White House Task Force to Prevent Students from Sexual Assault’s release of a series of recommendations late Monday, which detail the administration’s plan to improve reporting by universities and colleges of sexual assault incidents as well as bolster efforts to educate students about sexual and gender-based violence. “I understand all the excuses and I understand all the rationale …but colleges and universities can no longer turn a blind eye or pretend rape or sexual assault doesn’t occur on their campuses,” Biden said. “I understand that the good guys [that] report feel like they may be damaging the reputation of their schools. I get it. But it doesn’t matter. We need to provide survivors with support and we need to bring perpetrators to justice.”

The administration also announced that it would launch the website NotAlone.gov where enforcement data will be published and begin a push to require colleges and universities to conduct “climate surveys” to better understand how frequently incidents happen on campus but are not reported to authorities. “I challenge every college and university if they are really serious about protecting students to conduct anonymous surveys,” Biden said. “They have a moral responsibility to know what is happening on their campus.” the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights released released a new guidance document on students’ rights and schools’ obligations under Title IX, which require colleges and universities that receive federal funds to investigate claims of sexual assault and provide a timely and impartial grievance procedure to resolve those claims. Notably, the guidance extends Title IX protection for the first time to claims of discrimination based on gender identity.

President Barack Obama is kissed by 94-year-old Carolina Garcia Delfin, a Filipina nurse who fought in the resistance against Japanese forces during World War II. The President mentioned her in his remarks to American and Philippine troops at Fort Bonifacio in Manila, Philippines, April 29, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)